In the course of many professional and educational assessments, the evaluation of a patient or subject involves utilizing standardized testing instruments. These instruments commonly measure a subject's performance against that of a standardized norm, such as the average of the general population within a specified criterion such as age. Many of these standardized measuring instruments utilize defined reference tables and analyze performance within six (6) month age intervals. Thus in certain assessments, educational and medical professionals are required to calculate a person's age. This calculation is necessary for determining how a subject is performing relative to others within the same chronological age range. These calculations typically involve calculating the number of years, months, and days past a birthday, particularly where the professional is involved with assessing a young subject. The calculations are traditionally done by hand or with the use of a conventional calculator by the professional during the assessment process. Although these calculations are rarely complicated due to the nature of mathematical problem solving and the tendency for distractions during assessments, errors can occur in the calculation. Unfortunately this can lead to inaccuracies in calculations and consume the professional's valuable time.
Various devices exist to assist a user in performing certain desired calculations, such as elapsed time from two (2) specified dates, the predicted life of an item, obstetrical events, and the like. These attempts can be seen by reference to various U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,005,571, issued in the name of Wolff, which describes an elapsed time reminder with conversion of calendar days into elapsed time; 4,153,874, issued in the name of Kaestner, which describes a mobile perpetually self-correcting estimated time of arrival calculator; 5,626,133, issued in the name of Johnson et al., which describes a gestational computer; 4,625,175, issued in the name of Smith, which describes a device indicating the time remaining of the useful life of a battery; and 5,777,905, issued in the name of Dowdle et al., which describes an obstetrical and gynecological event and status calculator.
Other devices attempt to utilize the birth date of an individual for age verification in order to authorize access to age restricted good and services, such as tobacco, alcohol, or electronic media. These devices utilize electronic age verification methods such as reading the magnetic strip on the back side of a driver's license or utilizing an electronic statement verifying the birth date of a user. Examples of these devices can be seen by reference in the following U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,425, issued in the name of Sheppard et al., describes systems, apparatus and processes to verify a person's age to determine if the person is authorized and U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,861, issued in the name of Walters, describes a method of age verification for electronic media.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffers from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages and fails to solve the aforementioned problems. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which age calculations can be simply and accurately made without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.